In September 1940, in response to the Japanese offensive, the Eighth Route Army successfully killed an important general of the Japanese army in a fierce battle. This victory greatly boosted the anti-Japanese morale of the whole country and also proved the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army.
Against this background, the Eighth Route Army held an important military conference on how to further strengthen combat readiness and combat the arrogance of the Japanese aggressors.
At a key meeting on military deployment, the commander elaborated on what was to come"Battle of Lailing"。Within a few hours of the meeting, an officer of the Communications Section had set the content of the Newsletter to read"Battle of Lailing"He also gave a detailed account of the main operational directions and objectives, with the intention of stimulating the morale of all officers and men.
When the commander happened to flip through the "Work Newsletter", he immediately became furious, drew his pistol and rushed straight to the Political Department, because this "Work Newsletter" obviously leaked the battle plan of the Eighth Route Army.
Had it not been for the commitment of the Minister of Political Affairs and the Chief of the Propaganda Section, who was present at the time, to withdraw the newspaper, the commander would have immediately dealt with the officer himself for leaking secrets. This "hot-tempered" commander is exactly.
Yang Chengwu, a child of a poor family in Changting, Fujian, was born on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month in 1914. Despite his poor family, his uncles saw his ingenuity and believed that he could make a difference, so they scraped together to provide for his education.
Fortunately, the uncles' judgment was not wrong, and Yang Chengwu was admitted to Changting Fujian Provincial High School with excellent results. In 1929, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized a large army to carry out the third suppression of Jinggangshan, and uprisings arose in various places.
At this turning point in history, Yang Chengwu decided to follow the enlightenment teacher Zhang Chunan and devote himself to the revolutionary cause.
In the second year of becoming a member of the middle school, Yang Chengwu began to grow up in revolutionary activities, from an ordinary peasant boy to a "hundred battle generals" who are both wise and brave in our party and our army, and can fight well, and was praised as the "Zhao Zilong in the army" who dared to take the lead and bravely took the lead.
After the outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, Yang Chengwu graduated ahead of schedule as the first batch of students of the "Red University" and went to the anti-Japanese front, successively serving as the head of the Independent Regiment of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, the commander of the First Independent Division and concurrently the political commissar, and the commander and political commissar of the First Division of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region.
He participated in many anti-Japanese battles, such as the Battle of Pingxingguan, the Battle of the Hundred Regiments, the Battle of Yansu Cliff, and the Ambush Battle of Loess Ridge, which effectively dealt a blow to the arrogance of the Japanese army and boosted the morale and confidence of our army.
Among them, in the battle of Yansu Cliff, Yang Chengwu successfully killed Lieutenant General Abe Norihide, the supreme commander of the Japanese "Mongolian Xinjiang Garrison Army", with a mortar, which was also the first senior general killed on the battlefield by our side since the Japanese war of aggression against China, thus making Yang Chengwu famous.
On October 31, 1939, Yang Chengwu, who was attending a meeting of the Northern Bureau of the Communist Party of China, received an urgent information: Lieutenant General Abe Guixiu, commander of the Japanese "Mengjiang Garrison Army" stationed in Zhangjiakou, planned to lead more than 1,000 Japanese troops and puppet troops to attack the base area of the first division.
After learning of this news, Yang Chengwu immediately rushed back to the sub-district and convened an emergency meeting to make military deployments. On the way back, he did not rest for a moment, and deliberately made a detour to Yinfang, Yansu Cliff, Baishikou, and Loess Ridge, carefully observing the topography of these places, and striving to find the best ambush point to block the enemy.
Yang Chengwu's military talent and keen vision are admirable, and he lives up to the reputation of "Zhao Zilong in the army". He was able to quickly conceive a plan for ambushing the Japanese army according to the terrain and topography, and quickly communicated the battle deployment and combat orders to the regiments, and immediately began to prepare for it.
However, the arrogant Japanese army did not take the Eighth Route Army seriously, and did not send soldiers to guard even when they were resting. As a result, the unprepared Japanese army encountered the prepared Eighth Route Army, and the formation was in chaos and the whole army was annihilated.
However, Yang Chengwu did not become complacent because of the victory in this battle, but calmly analyzed the operational laws of the Japanese army to his subordinates.
After each defeat, the Japanese would retaliate frantically, and when they learned of the defeat, they would send a large number of troops to rush towards our army, trying to surprise our army before we had time to celebrate the victory.
However, Yang Chengwu had insight into their intentions, and he carefully designed a death trap called the "Pocket Array" to target the "Flower of Famous Generals" Abe Norihide.
On November 5, Abe Norihide led his army from Longhu Village to Baishikou. In order to lead the Japanese army into the trap of Loess Ridge, Yang Chengwu sent a small detachment to trap the Japanese army, and then skillfully controlled the distance after receiving the fire, so that the Japanese could not attack and could not pursue.
After two swoops, Abe suddenly received information claiming that there was the main force of the Eighth Route Army near the Loess Ridge. After getting the news, Abe Norihide immediately led the army to the Loess Ridge like a hungry wolf seeing a fat sheep.
This was exactly what Yang Chengwu was premeditating. The Eighth Route Army had already arranged a "pocket" around the canyon west of the Loess Ridge. However, Abe Norihide received information that there was the main force of the Eighth Route Army in the northwest of the Loess Ridge, and speculated that the Eighth Route Army would attack from his rear, and in order to prevent annihilation, he immediately changed his mind and made the decision to retreat.
Although Abe made several attempts** in the battles that followed, he was unsuccessful. After more than an hour of fierce fighting, the Japanese suffered heavy losses. At this time, Chen Zhengxiang, the commander of the first regiment, keenly discovered that there were several Japanese officers with knives walking frequently in front of an independent courtyard, and a Japanese officer was also observing with a telescope on the hill behind the courtyard.
Based on his years of experience, Chen Zhengxiang judged that this independent compound was likely to be the enemy's command post, while Xiaoshanbao was likely to be an observation post set up by the enemy.
Chen Zhengxiang decisively ordered the mortar company to attack two targets. Four shells went straight to the Independence Courtyard and the hill bag, and were fierce in the target area**. Chen Zhengxiang did not let his guard down because of this, and immediately ordered a second attack.
Just as the shells were coming, Norihide Abe, the "flower of famous generals", was in the command post. In the end, Norihide Abe died of excessive blood loss and died tragically in the rubble.
The death of Abe Norihide shocked the Japanese government and the public, and completely dealt a blow to the arrogance of the Japanese army.
China's complete victory in the Battle of Loess Ridge was another great victory in the resistance against Japan that shocked China and the rest of the world after the great victory at Pingxingguan, and fully proved the indisgrace of the Chinese nation.
However, the Japanese did not give up on this laurels, they went deep into the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei border area to open up forward positions, and established a large number of military bases in Sanjia Village, Dongtuanbao, Zhangjiayu and other places, in an attempt to cut off the retreat of the Eighth Route Army.
Thus, the Battle of Lailing began.
In the second stage of the Battle of the Hundred Regiments, the Battle of Lailing was an outstanding attack by the Eighth Route Army on the border of Hebei and Jin against the Japanese invaders, and outstanding generals such as Yang Chengwu commanded well, successfully repelled the enemy's counterattack, and laid the foundation for the victory of the War of Resistance against Japan.
On September 16, 1940, the commander and political commissar of Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei decided to take the opportunity to recapture the two county towns of Laiyuan and Lingqiu, and took advantage of the opportunity of the Japanese troops stationed in Laiyuan, Hebei and Lingqiu, Shanxi to adjust their deployment and reduce their troops, and concentrated a large number of our troops to launch the Lailing Campaign.
During the campaign, the troops under the command of Yang Chengwu of the right flank focused on the attack on Laiyuan City and the outlying strongholds. However, after a fierce all-night battle, due to the lack of heavy **, coupled with the stubborn resistance of the Japanese army and the release of poison gas, the first regiment could not hold its position and was forced to withdraw from the battlefield.
After learning of this situation, Yang Chengwu immediately reported to ***, proposing to change the deployment and readjust the force in order to achieve the final victory.
General Yang Chengwu's eyes were focused on the outlying strongholds such as Sanjia Village, Dongtuanbao, and Zhongzhuang, and he knew that Sanjia Village was an important position to protect Laiyuan and guard traffic. Only by seizing this "hard bone" can the Eighth Route Army cut off the connection between Laiyuan and the enemy in Yixian County and create conditions for the capture of Laiyuan City.
Therefore, he entrusted this task to the 2nd Regiment of the 3rd Division, which was assigned to the operation, and the regiment commander Xiao Siming and political commissar Huang Wenming were personally in charge. They were well aware of the heavy responsibility of this task, and personally went to the front of the village to inspect the terrain and understand the enemy's situation.
In the strategy of deciding that the first battalion would be the main attack, the first company would attack the village, the third company would attack the west mountain, the second company and one platoon would attack the east mountain, the main force would occupy a favorable position to block the enemy's reinforcements, and the fourth company would be on standby as a reserve.
However, the regiment commander Xiao Siming did not lose confidence because of this, but convened a military democratic meeting to discuss the reasons for the defeat, promote democracy, and brainstorm, and finally formulated a highly targeted combat plan that could divide the enemy and break them one by one.
Under the precise command of Zeng Haiting, director of the political department of the regiment, the third battalion of the second regiment launched a fierce attack on the Zhongzhuang stronghold when the fierce battle was in full swing in Sanjia Village. The fire team first used fire to suppress the enemy, and the demolition team took the opportunity to rush forward and capture the Zhongzhuang stronghold like a bamboo.
This battle plan had a remarkable effect, taking the enemy by surprise, so that the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment, with the assistance of the 1st Regiment and 3rd Battalion, successfully captured all the strongholds in Sanjia Village and captured a large amount of supplies.
At a distance of only a dozen meters from the temple gate, the fire tongues of the enemy machine guns suppressed them in a narrow passage. At the critical moment, the demolition team decisively threw grenades, successfully blew up the enemy machine gun, and quickly rushed to the temple gate, using the shadow wall in front of the temple as a cover, throwing grenades into the temple.
Subsequently, the company commander Ren Qingyu led the assault group to rush in. In the end, the enemy's resistance could not be sustained, and they had to flee in a hurry.
The Eighth Route Army successfully captured Zhongzhuang. Compared with the battle between Sanjia Village and Zhongzhuang, the three regiments led by Qiu Wei encountered many difficulties in the process of attacking Dongtuanbao. However, the fact that the 3rd Regiment was able to quickly grasp the enemy situation was largely due to a Japanese non-commissioned officer named Kanai who taught the brigade interpreter.
This Korean translator's sympathy for the Chinese people stems from the patient guidance and meticulous work of the CCP's underground workers in the base area.
In the course of our army's reconnaissance of the stronghold of Dongtuanbao, the three regiments were able to quickly break through the enemy's defense line with a fierce offensive and dealt an unexpected blow to the enemy.
Eventually, the blockhouses on the south and southwest sides of the East Regiment Fort were captured by the Third Regiment. However, the Japanese non-commissioned officer teaching brigade carried out a frantic counterattack with the strong fortifications of the East Regiment Fort and the superior ** equipment, and the shells poured towards our troops like a tide, and even used poison gas, resulting in the poisoning of more than 300 people in our army.
After two nights of fierce fighting, the 3rd Regiment successfully captured all the outlying fortifications of the East Regiment Fort, but was unable to advance to their base due to the stubborn resistance of the enemy. The soldiers could only wear masks soaked in water, and fought to the last moment in the face of the poisonous gas and fierce artillery fire of the Japanese army.
Finally, on the 26th, after repeated fierce battles, the three regiments finally conquered the East Regiment Fort.
The 27 non-commissioned officers of the Japanese army taught the officers of the brigade that they would rather die for the sake of the ideals in their hearts, and finally burn themselves and become part of the land of Dongtuanbao. Their disappearance led to the complete destruction of the Japanese non-commissioned officer training brigade and the end of the battle at Dongtuanbao.
This was one of the three major battles in the Battle of Lailing. In this battle, not a single officer blindly carried out the inherent battle plan, but proceeded from the actual situation, flexibly adapted, responded to the enemy's counterattacks again and again, fought bravely, annihilated more than 1,000 Japanese puppet troops, and realized the Lailing Campaign, which accumulated small victories into big victories.
In countless brutal revolutionary battles, Yang Chengwu deeply understood the fragility and preciousness of life. The life of the propaganda officer was equally precious, but he knew that if the leak was leaked, it could lead to even more tragic sacrifices, so he was outraged.
In the arduous years of the War of Resistance Against Japan, thousands of sacrifices were carried behind every victory, and generals often had a deeper understanding and consciousness than soldiers.
Leading their soldiers to survive and win in the war is a heavy responsibility on their shoulders, a question they think about repeatedly every night, and a boulder hanging above their heads.
The achievements of New China are not easy, and we should be grateful and respect these generals and soldiers who have contributed to the establishment of New China. Although we cannot fully empathize, we have the same responsibility, which is to jointly build a strong China.